The Cabrini softball team hosted the Centenary Cyclones in a Colonial States Athletic Conference doubleheader on Monday, March 23.
The lady Cavs split the doubleheader, winning the first game 4-1 behind junior pitcher Liz Zimmer.
Zimmer struck out seven while pitching in all seven innings. This was her third win of the season.
“Winning games comes behind a strong defense and Liz pitched a good, solid game for us,” freshman infielder Sammy Thompson said.
Offensively, freshman Angela Shookster dominated at the plate going 2-for-2, scoring one run and hitting in two more.
Shookster came up big in the bottom of the second inning, hitting a solo homerun, which tied the game up 1-1.
The Cavaliers stepped up big in the fifth inning when they took their first and final lead of the game.
Freshman Sammy Thompson scored on a two-base error after driving a one out double, which hit the bottom of the centerfield fence. That hit put Cabrini up 2-1.
The Cavs then sent Ryan McDonough home for a score from an RBI single from Shookster later in the second inning.
“Cabrini came up with a couple of good plays during clutch time in the first game. They got their bat on the ball and that’s what it takes to win games,” Centenary’s outfielder Stephanie Bickel said.
Cabrini finished their strong hitting in the sixth by back-to-back doubles from sophomores Chrissy Squillace and Susan Schmidt.
“I think that as a team we came out strong in the first game, but as a whole we needed to come out stronger in the second,” Zimmer said.
The lady Cavs were unable to finish the day with a sweep. This is the third conference double-header in three tries that has ended in a split.
The contagious hitting was not in the air during the second game as the Cavs gave up nine runs and were only able to score five.
Junior pitcher Cheri Johns pitched the whole second game only giving up four earned runs. Schmidt supplied the offense for the Cavaliers driving in two runs as well as scoring one.
Schmidt hit a bomb over the left field fence giving Cabrini a 2-1 advantage in the second inning.
“In the third inning, we all knew we needed to come out strong and do some damage, everyone really stepped up and hit well,” Centenary pitcher Sarah Olsen said.
That wasn’t enough to stop Centenary from coming back; they answered with three unearned runs in the top half of the third inning.
They then added to their score with five runs over the last three innings.
“We really just need to start cleaning up the errors, the errors are the only thing that we need to work on. Our bats were a lot stronger in both games today; we just need to keep working hard, learning from our mistake and moving ahead looking to the next game,” Zimmer said.
The split makes Cabrini 3-3 in the conference and 5-9 overall.
